The Gospel in Real Life

The Abrahamic Covenant is a covenant of promise. The gospel was announced in advance to Abraham (Galatians 3:8) and imputation is introduced in the Abrahamic Covenant.  Abraham experienced the forgiveness of sin and received the gift of saving faith and imputed righteousness, apart from anything he did – apart from works.  Likewise, all who believe get everything Christ purchased for them placed freely into their account (imputed righteousness) apart from law or works. At its core, the Abrahamic covenant is a proclamation of the gospel and it clearly introduces imputation and justification by faith alone. Abraham had freely received the gift of saving faith and because he took God at his word, his faith, even though it was a gift, was counted as righteousness. Abraham experienced the forgiveness of sin and was justified by a foreign righteousness placed freely into his account, apart from anything that he did. This imputation of a foreign righteousness which results in justification and the forgiveness of sin, is the same righteousness offered in the gospel to us.

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. (Romans 4:1-5)

There was nothing that Abraham did or could do to earn the righteousness that was freely placed into his account, or imputed to him. Abraham was justified by faith alone. Paul continues his discussion about Abraham,

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:9-12)

The message of the gospel is that a person can have Read more…

Circumcision was a sign given first to Abraham and his household and later, to the Old Covenant nation of Israel.  One purpose of circumcision was identification.  Initially, circumcision identified those who belonged to Abraham’s household.  Under the Old Covenant, that period of time from Exodus 19 to Acts chapter 2, circumcision identified ancient Israel as the physical people of God.  In both instances, circumcision was a physical sign showing one’s physical identification.

The greater purpose of circumcision was to point to the coming age of the Spirit in the New Covenant in which the church, Abraham’s true spiritual descendants (Galatians 3:16, 29), receive true circumcision of the heart (the forgiveness of sin and everything that accompanies salvation) and are placed within the family of God.  In the New Covenant, physical circumcision gives way to baptism as the outward identification that one has become a part of Read more…

What are the Ten Commandments like? What was their purpose and why were they given? Are they a worthy investment of our time and energy in order to get them posted in public places? In some settings where a ―Christian influence is prominent, a preoccupation with the Ten Commandments sometimes surfaces. With noble intentions, we might find ourselves rolling up our sleeves to do battle over posting the Ten Commandments in schools or court houses. But should a believer‘s conscience be bound by the Ten Commandments? Are the Ten Commandments helpful or harmful to the life of the church?

I have posted a new page called The Nature of the Ten Commandments in the Gospel Pictures section of my web site. The issue of the Ten Commandments is an important one and I hope you’ll find me meager addition to the discussion a helpful one. You can see it [HERE] and comments are open and welcome. If you prefer, it’s also available in Adobe PDF [HERE].

I’ve started a section on my web site called Gospel Pictures. My plan is to load it up with papers that I’m writing and some that I’m re-writing, that all point to something unique in the Old Testament that meets its ultimate fulfillment in the New Testament. Since these are a little more technical in nature, I wanted to put them in a separate section on my site and not directly as blog posts. That way, they are easily accessible all the time and won’t get buried in the blog pile as time marches on. Plus, since they are more technical in nature than what I post as normal blogs, I realize that some people might not be as interested in them as they are in the normal blog posts (although I can’t imagine that, considering the author!), so I decided to set them apart. But comments are open on them and welcome. There is also a printer-friendly button if you’re like me and get a little fatigued reading something long on your monitor. Here are the two papers that I have posted so far:

The Abrahamic Covenant – When I began to understand what was happening in the covenant with Abraham, Scripture began to really open up for me and the big picture of how Scripture fits together crystallized.

The Old Covenant and the Law of Moses – When I understood that the Old Covenant was a legal, conditional covenant, it helped me to understand the place of Israel in the Bible and it gave me a deeper appreciation of the New Covenant and God’s grace.

Gospel Pictures – This is the section of my site where you will be able to find the additional papers that I post on this theme. If you visit this section of my site, you will see several links to papers that are on the way. As I post each one, the links will become active, so please subscribe or keep checking back.